Deadly pit viper in border booty

A live white-lipped pit viper found in a shipping container is among hundreds of reptiles intercepted at borders in the past three years.

The common house gecko was by far the most frequently intercepted reptile, according to the Ministry for Primary Industries.

The unlucky pit viper, a native of Southeast Asia, and its fellow snakes were all sentenced to death, after first being given a barbiturate injection.

This anaesthetised them, and the animals then had their spinal cords severed, were decapitated or had a needle stuck into their brains.

‘‘The preferred option is for an MPI veterinarian to carry out the euthanasia process,’’ MPI’s Brendan Gould said.

The pit viper was found in a shipping container carrying landscape supplies.

A menagerie of other exotic animals were intercepted, data released under the Official Information Act shows.

Two common tree snakes were found alive, as was a Chilean slender snake. Fourteen common smooth-scaled geckos were found on a private yacht last year, nine of them alive.

Several dark-flecked garden sun skinks, which the Department of Conservation dubbed ‘‘plague skinks’’, were intercepted.

A live fine-faced gecko was found in a traveller’s personal effects this year.

A live iguana was found in a package at the Auckland Mail Centre last year, and several different gecko and skink species were found dead and alive. Some exotic reptiles were deemed a threat to native species, including the Wellington green gecko.

DOC said nine species of lizard were found in urban environments in the lower North Island.

‘‘Some more threatened species are found only on mammal-free offshore islands, such as Kapiti, Mana and Matiu/Somes.’’

Reptiles, especially rare species, were popular and sometimes expensive pets here and abroad. Three female leopard geckos were for sale on Trade Me this week for $500.

In 2010, seven forest geckos, a threatened species, were stolen from Northland conservation park KiwiNorth.

In a separate case the following year, two Germans who admitted travelling to New Zealand to steal rare native geckos were jailed. - Fairfax NZ